Feeling sorry (a little) for the White House staff

Now for something completely different: There hasn’t been a whole lot of Twitterin’ from President Trump the past few days.

Maybe it’s the time change from Washington, D.C., to the Middle East and now Rome, where @RealDonaldTrump has been on his first trip abroad as his alter-ego, @POTUS. They’re usually up and at Twitter first thing in the morning but between them, they’ve mostly fired off only a few “postcard” tweets.

Since Trump’s been gone, things have been pretty quiet around the White House. Maybe he should travel more. The Trump White House is a basket of undesirables if not deplorables, but lately I’ve found myself feeling a little sorry for them.

Larson

Amelia Catherine Photography

Never miss a local story.

Sign up today for a free 30 day free trial of unlimited digital access.

Their days go like this: The president fires the director of the FBI. It’s the staff’s job to explain why. With straight faces they put out carefully crafted talking points saying that it was the attorney general and his top deputy who wanted James Comey fired; the president was just doing what the Justice Department – the law enforcement professionals – wanted.

Spin cycle was barely 24 hours old when Real Donald and POTUS were bragging he had already decided to fire Comey before meeting with his Justice officials. DOH!

Another day: Staff’s job is to deny all over the place a Washington Post report that President Trump gave Russian officials classified information in their White House meeting. Real Donald fires up Twitter the next morning and declares he did give them information and had the “absolute right to.” DOH!

So now we know the president told the Russians secret stuff, the only question being, “How secret?” A proposition not unlike a famous one attributed to Sir Winston Churchill about knowing a woman is a prostitute, the only question being “How much?”

Yet another day: Trump tweets that former FBI director Comey better hope there are no tape recordings of meetings between the two, and White House staff has to spin this as not-Nixonian. The former director responds with the bombshell that he, a lawyer and investigator, has made notes of their conversations. DOH!

And so it goes. From the comical – the hugest crowd ever at an inauguration. DOH! To the consequential – the matter of Michael Flynn, Trump’s National Security Adviser for 27 whole days who is now pleading the Fifth and refusing a subpoena from the Senate Intelligence Committee. DOH!

Through the attempts at a travel ban, the repealing and replacing of Obamacare (where does that stand, by the way?), the business dealings of “JareVanka” (that’s a thing now, I’m told), the White House of President Trump is the embodiment of chaos.

Stories are circulating that the president is weighing a major reboot in his White House staff. Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer and others have been mentioned as on-the-block. The president has been described as “very frustrated and angry at everyone,” a view now also attributed to First Lady Melania.

Well of course he’s frustrated and angry at everyone. He simply must be. There’s no denying the chaos in the White House and if it’s not everyone else – it’s him.

Observer contributor Keith Larson can be heard weekdays from 11 a.m to 1 p.m. on TheLarsonPage.com and followed on Twitter @ClubLAMA.